Allow patients to cancel their own appointments for COVID-19 related reasons

Use a cancellation link in your confirmation emails to let patients cancel their own appointments, especially if they're feeling unwell.

Emily avatar
Written by Emily
Updated over a week ago

Want to set up rules around which patients should and shouldn’t be coming in? To protect your clinic and patients, you may want to set up some safety guidelines for visitors. You can allow those who may be at risk to cancel their appointment when a confirmation email or reminder comes through. We'll walk you through the steps below.

🚨 Please note: if the patient has paid for their online booking in advance, they cannot cancel their own appointment using the cancellation link.

Read on for details on how to add a cancellation link to:

If a patient cancels their own appointment, they'll see the option to specify whether it's COVID-19 related.


Cancellation links in appointment confirmation emails

☝️Note: To let your patients cancel online, you'll need your confirmation emails set up to go out at the time of booking. 

First, head to Settings, and then Appointment confirmations:

Select the applicable confirmation email template from the list.

Then, find the "Appointment confirmation email" section, and craft your cancellation text somewhere in the text editor, where it would make sense to have it. 

For COVID-19 specific cancellations, we suggest referring to what your local health officials are advising. Things you may want to include could be something like, If you are in quarantine, have travelled internationally in the last 14 days, have flu-like symptoms, or have come in contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, we ask that you cancel your appointment. Please click here to do so . You can then place the cancellation link below this text.

Once you've typed that out, select the CancellationLink "placeholder" from APPOINTMENT drop-down menu:

This will then "place" that link in the confirmation email:

Click Update confirmation template:

Finished! 🙌 


Cancellation links in email appointment reminders

☝️Note: To let your patients cancel online, you'll need your email reminders set up to go out 1-5 days prior to the appointment.

Head to Settings, and then Appointment reminders:

Select the relevant reminder template from the list. On the next page, craft your cancellation text somewhere in the text editor, where it would make sense to have it. 

For COVID-19 specific cancellations, we suggest referring to what your local health officials are suggesting. Things you may want to include could be something like, If you are in quarantine, have travelled internationally in the last 14 days, have flu-like symptoms, or have come in contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, we ask that you cancel your appointment. Please click here to do so . You can then place the cancellation link below this text.

Once you've typed that out, select the CancellationLink "placeholder" from APPOINTMENT drop-down menu:

This will then "place" that link in the email reminder:

Hit the "Update reminder template" button:

And you'll be all set!


Cancellation links in SMS appointment reminders

☝️Note: To let your patients cancel online, you'll need to have SMS reminders set up.

Head to Settings, and then Appointment reminders:

Select the relevant reminder template from the list. On the next page, craft your cancellation text somewhere in the text editor, where it would make sense to have it. 

☝️Note: SMS reminders use "credits", which you will need to purchase. One credit covers up to 160 characters. It's generally a good idea to try to keep your SMS messages short and sweet, otherwise you might chew through a fair few credits!

Once you've typed that out, select the CancellationLink "placeholder" from APPOINTMENT drop-down menu:

This will then "place" that link in the SMS reminder:

Hit the "Update reminder template" button, and you're all set.

In all of the above cancellation scenarios, patients will be able to select "COVID-19 related" as a reason:


Specify the "minimum notice" for appointment cancellations

The minimum notice for cancellations is the amount of time remaining before an appointment when a patient can still cancel. While in most cases, a lot of clinics don't want patients cancelling less than, 24 hours prior. But, things are a little different when it comes to COVID-19. You might want to give patients the ability to cancel last-minute—especially if they've just started feeling ill the day of their appointment.

Below, we'll walk you through how to set this up.

Head to Settings, and then Online bookings:

Under Minimum notice for cancellations, select your timeframe:

 ☝️ Note: You can specify anywhere from no restriction (meaning they could cancel a minute before their appointment was supposed to start!) to nine days (meaning if they tried to cancel at 8 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds before their appointment, they could not).

Click Save online bookings settings, and you're all done!

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